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Exclusive Experiences For Discerning Guests

Premium Level Hotels

Barceló’s Premium Level is a concept of services and facilities available at Barceló Premium Level hotels, providing your clients with an improved experience.

Royal Level

The Royal Level includes an area in select hotels that has been specifically designed for the needs of your clients, offering privacy and the highest quality standards and services. Guests can enjoy a luxury holiday experience with all the added advantages of an all inclusive programme.

Open Jaw

31Jul17

Spotlight On Barceló

ACV’s Sapphire Collection is all about added-value with the Barceló Hotel Group

Many consumers will tell you they just want the best possible price for their holiday in the sun.

As any experienced advisor will tell us, what they really want is the best experience they can get, for their individual tastes and requirements, at a price that fits within their budget. Which raises the question: Why sell them something just based on cheap when it won’t make them cheerful?

“Everyone is different and everybody responds differently to different stimuli,” says ACV Product Manager Teresa Pereira.

Occidental Nuevo Vallarta

“Personally, I couldn’t care less about nightly turndown service. But I have friends who just love to find a chocolate beside their pillow. I love having beach towels in the room and I love being able to enjoy an a la carte dinner several times a week when I’m on holidays. We all have our buttons that we like to have pushed. When agents can find out from their clients what those things are, they have a much better chance of closing the sale and having a satisfied client.”

Rick McCauley, Director of Sales and Marketing for Barceló Hotels & Resorts in Canada, says the Sapphire Collection offers the best of the Barceló and Occidental brands.

“A collection like this, which combines added value from ACV – like bonus Aeroplan Miles – with added-value offers from our resorts offered only to ACV travellers, really gives agents something to work with. They can say ‘I’ve got something special for you from our preferred operator and you’re not going to get it somewhere else.”

“ACV is a natural partner for the resorts in this collection. Most of them are medium-sized properties that skew to the higher end of our portfolio, with Barceló offering the 4.5-5-star properties and Occidental the 4- to 4.5-star resorts.

“ACV offers the ability to earn and redeem Aeroplan Miles with their packages, and Sapphire Collection bookings come with an additional 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per couple. That’s a big incentive for the millions of Aeroplan members across Canada. Many of them are business travellers used to a certain level of quality, and ACV guests tend to have more disposable income than clients of some of the other operators.”

And for those who want even more, 3 of the properties in the Sapphire Collection offer discounts on upgrades to Premium Level or Royal Level experiences at Barceló and Occidental properties, once again elevating the experience at an affordable upcharge.

McCauley also says that agents can target early bookings with confidence when they’re selling the ACV Sapphire Collection.

“The early booking bonuses are richer than ever, and generally speaking at Barceló and Occidental, we don’t reduce rates lower than EBB levels. So that pricing combined with the added benefits of the Sapphire Collection makes it a very solid proposition.”

ACV product manager Teresa Pereira agrees.

“The fact is, all the major tour operators sell Barceló and Occidental properties. So the question becomes, ‘Why choose ACV versus the others?’ We think the many benefits of the Sapphire Collection, along with our connector fares from across Canada, excellent air product and Bonus Aeroplan Miles, give a very strong positive answer to that question. It’s very early in the winter sales cycle, but we’re excited about what we have to offer, and our agent partners who have taken the time to learn about our Spotlight Collections are excited too.”

The next story in this Headliner details the exclusive ACV perks and privileges at the 9 different Barceló and Occidental properties in the Sapphire Collection.